Cheney's case with the Supreme Court

"The White House is claiming that simply by virtue of his executive status, the vice president is fundamentally immune from having to appear in front of any federal court and give any information or account of his activities. Period. It's that preposterous," he said

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch , is equally appalled: "This is a completely unprecedented attempt to overextend executive privilege," he said. "It calls into question the integrity of the court system in this country – particularly because we're 3-and-0 right now." In other words, first the U.S. District Court for D.C., where the lawsuit was originally filed, ordered Cheney to release the documents; second, he appealed the case to a federal appellate court three-judge panel, which again ordered the vice president to show his cards; and third, he steamrolled on to the full nine-judge appellate court, which refused to even reconsider the matter. With this track record, it's difficult to understand why the Supreme Court would agree to hear the case.  article

The Bush appointed Supreme Court? That one? Gee, I can't understand it either.

"We're totally screwed," said one lawyer close to the case against Cheney who asked to remain anonymous. "The Supreme Court took the case to kill it. They did not take the case for any other reason then to drive a big spike through it."

[Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch] is more hopeful...there are several Supreme Court rulings that suggest that the kind of executive immunity Cheney is requesting is flat-out unconstitutional – among them, United States vs. Nixon and Clinton vs. [Paula] Jones, which respectively forced presidents Nixon and Clinton to be treated in the judicial system like any other American. "If the Supreme Court upholds the letter of the law," said Fitton, "then we will very clearly win."

And if the Supreme Court forces Cheney to come clean, it's almost a given that the evidence would be damning: The media has already reported that Kenneth Lay and other energy honchos not only met with Cheney on task force-related matters but also, in the case of Lay, submitted an eight-item wish list for the administration's new energy policy.

But in the end it may not matter that much, because the Bush team will likely get exactly what it is looking for: extra time. According to Bookbinder, this whole strategy comes right out of the Karl Rove playbook. "The Bush administration is basically trying to stall the whole process for another year," said Bookbinder, "so that when the ruling comes out – if it does – it won't interfere with the November elections."

And my money says Double-face will dump Cheney.

....but hey, you bet what you want....you will anyway.